# CxO Panel Drone Autonomy Vision 2030

- Event: NestGen ’24
- Published: April 15, 2024
- Length: 48:24
- Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/qpCBqoJC2u0/

> The transcript of a recorded NestGen session, for reading or for use with an AI tool. It comes from the video's
> captions; automatic captions can mishear names and terms.

## About this session

Explore the future of drone autonomy with industry CxOs in this insightful panel discussion envisioning 2030. Gain valuable insights into the opportunities and challenges of advancing drone technology. Join the conversation on the evolving landscape of unmanned aerial systems and their impact across industries. Discover the strategic visions driving innovation and shaping the future of autonomous flight. Dive into key topics such as safety, efficiency, and regulatory frameworks, and stay ahead in harnessing the potential of drones for transformative applications in various sectors. Tune in to envision the possibilities and shape the future of aerial automation.

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## Transcript

**[0:20]** hello again a warm welcome to everyone joining us from across the Grove for what promises to be a landmark session at NestGen 24 today we're privileged to host an exclusive cxo panel on drone autonomy Vision 2030 now this is not just a discussion it's a glimpse into the future a vision of what the next decade holds for drone technology and autonomous flight as we stand at the Forefront of the next decade the Horizon of drone autonomy stretches far and wide it promises transformative changes in how we live work and connect from delivering Essentials to remote areas to revolutionizing surveillance agriculture Urban Mobility the potential is absolutely boundless but so are the challenges and responsibilities our panel today comprises a stellar lineup of cxos from leading companies in the Drone and tech industry these are Visionaries and The Architects of the future driving Innovation shaping policy and building the technologies that will power the next wave of autonomous flight in

**[1:25]** this session we'll explore the technological breakthroughs on the horizon the regulatory Landscapes shaping the path forward and the societal impacts of widespread drone autonomy our panelists will share their insights predictions and strategies for navigating the journey towards 2030 couple housekeeping items this is being recorded so you will be able to catch this in the days ahead we would also like to thank our sponsors DJI Enterprise and sunflower labs for bringing this to everyone also uh we will be taking some questions at the end so if you have questions you can use the Q&A section to add those questions and we'll get to them as many as we possibly can but without further Ado I'd like to introduce our esteemed panelists and I'd like to invite them to introduce themselves so as we delve into drone autonomy Vision 2030 let's hear from the leaders who are not just witnessing the future but are actively crafting it let's go ahead and get started

**[2:28]** let's start with nitton hello everyone uh this is Nathan I am the founder and CEO of FlytBase uh flight base as many of you know is the Drone autonomy software platform happy to be on this panel thanks nitt let's go to Eric all right great thank you Jason I'm the chairman and CEO of andos and um and our andos autonomous systems business unit uh andos autonomous systems has two subsidaries we we have American robotics based in Boston and air robotics based in Israel we have two fully autonomous drone platforms there's the Optimus system uh and the iron drone Raider the Optimus system is a fully autonomous drone in a box very sophisticated high-end system uh it's got 247 operations due to the battery swapping capabilities uh we also are able to swap payload so uh and I'll just say very quickly and uh the iron drone Raider system is a count us platform uh it's also a fully autonomous system uh as it relates to this County us capabilities we are a so-called Interceptor drone a very sophisticated

**[3:31]** system that's hitting the high end of the market for critical and civil civil infrastructure protection and of course defense and security markets thanks Eric Glenn welcome um thanks Jason thanks n to the te and the team for putting on this uh fantastic program again and hello to everybody around the world uh from Montreal I'm Glenn Lynch I'm the CEO of the V latus Aerospace group of companies we're a uh um a Next Generation Aviation company operating drones helicopters piloted helicopters and uh piloted airplanes in uh basically providing Innovative data intelligence Services we're a value added reseller and we're operating throughout Canada the United States and uh United Kingdom super super happy to be here Glen thank you so much we're so glad that you're here um also like to welcome Alex thank you uh I'm Alex patricof I'm the co-founder and CEO of FL Labs we make an

**[4:31]** autonomous uh security drone a drone in a box um well that's probably enough about me thank you thanks Alex appreciate that and last but certainly not least David hey team David ings I lead the robotics group at drone deploy I came to drone deploy VI an acquisition from a automation company called Ros where I was the CEO and co-founder uh drone deploy digitizes the physical world so we specialize in reality capture and we do that both with aerial Robotics and ground robotics uh great to be here I am so glad that you are here I'm so glad that all of you are here now look this would not be a vision 2030 panel without looking to head to 2030 so if we're looking ahead to 2030 so and this we're going to go around the horn with this what transformative roles do you foresee for autonomous drones in society and Industry what and what breakthroughs are going to be pivotable pivotal in realizing this Vision let's go ahead and start with let's start with Eric okay great um so you

**[5:36]** know no question autonomous technology is going to have a huge impact on the economy uh in a very positive way I would focus on seeing early impact here in infrastructure markets as well as Public Safety uh and personal and Enterprise security uh these these tools are are very important for resiliency uh the secure and efficient operation of critical infrastructure and Jason as it relates to breakthroughs I think what we should be looking at in in as as an industry is the fact that the technology uh uh uh in Innovation cycle that's been the bulk of the last five 10 years or even longer for many of our companies uh is starting to show itself in reliability uh particularly on the autonomous systems side of of of of the industry and what that's meaning is when we're deploying these Technologies they're becoming scalable repeatable and our customers are beginning to have better and better experiences which of course is leading to revenue and that revenue is driving scale which it can be reinvested uh in in in growth and even further deployment so I think the reliability uh of these of the Investments that that have been made over

**[6:41]** the over the years um is something to focus on thank you Eric uh let's go around the horn of David yeah I think the interesting part of the industry that we work in is really as I mentioned the digitizing the physical world and customers have this increased appetite to have live connection to their digital twin uh so for us really the automation technology means you you don't have teams of people that have to uh Drive fly around to get to these locations you literally just have the technology at the site continuously all the time and so when this capture is happening uh obviously a lot of us are talking about the automation of the flight component and with with dock drones and the pricing and the quality that's coming in now that we can actually leverage but it's really the full pipeline it's the fact that it's scheduled it just happens and it happens all the time means customers have live access to continuous digitized data of physical sites so construction it's transformative you have a continuous record of your progress you can roll back at any time uh we also work in the oil and gas and Industrial Area so capturing issues

**[7:46]** uh well before they actually cause outages in these types of environments are saving our customers Millions so uh this technology is really transformative uh in those specific Industries to catch issues quickly and and keep an update on your physical infrastructure David thank you let's go to our host nitton uh thanks Jason uh so 2030 know there are a few applications that will definitely be the first ones to adopt this technology and they will become mainstream like almost everybody in the security industry mapping inspection would be using autonomous drones and these are drones without needing a lot of human intervention so fully automated missions with baby loss and so on so that is something I think we we are kind of on that path and that is very likely to happen and I agree with what know Eric mentioned about reliability and the know kind of core for all of this to happen would be making sure that our systems are highly reliable and by that time we should have lot of standardizations in place in terms of uh safety standards in terms of compliance and certification standards so that it

**[8:51]** becomes very easy for people to comply with those and have systems that are ready to be deployed at scale so those those are few of the things things that beop uh so maybe controversial um maybe not uh Alex thoughts oh I see setting me up um okay fine uh I'll bite um my vision for 2030 is that we have legally deployed everything we developed in 2020 um so I honestly don't see that there is that much technological gap between where we want to be where we are right now I think the Gap is mostly regulatory you know various certifications uh societal acceptance to some extent um you know maybe Integrations of various kinds but um I would personally you know I' I've been on panels like this in 2016 and 2017 when I talked about my vision for 2020 and I don't want to repeat the same things for 2030 but it is still consistent

**[9:54]** uh I'll add one other thought um I think all drones should be autonomous I don't understand why why there are drones which are not autonomous like um I don't see why a human would do anything better than a drone which is reacting at 250 htz um uh especially if you're talking about remote operations especially if you're talking about BV loss um I think a a human should be suggesting to the Drone what they should do but absolutely the Drone should make the decision of how to do it and how to do it safely and how to react to different conditions if the drones are going to be autonomous um then they should all be for the most part remote I mean yes you can be next to it but that would be more coincidental um but if you have a an autonomous system then you know it should by definition be remote and if they are autonomous on their remote and by definition they need to have a a landing station or some sort of a box so really like I almost see that the current landscape of the drones where people are piloting them that becomes more like you know what you have horses for so that's like a fun activity that you do maybe for racing maybe for sports but for any

**[10:56]** type of work it needs to be an autonomous remotely operated drone that lives in the box recharges or swaps batteries or whatever it needs to do and just does its job so uh if we can make that happen by 2030 I'll be very happy but quite honestly we're doing most of that today um you know albate with a bit more hurdles appreciate that Alex thanks for taking the taking the bite out of that uh Glenn thoughts mute strike two I concur completely with the with my colleagues on the panel here Alex comment about uh autonomy I think he's got it exactly right I think we're looking at humans being on the loop rather than in the loop I think that that's probably nearer term than than uh uh 2030 by 2030 I think we're going to be in a very different position than where we are right now because we're going to be looking at both the the uh Enterprise class the the lighter smaller drones as well as the larger platforms that are being developed by many of our industry colleagues

**[12:00]** that are are starting to enter service I believe that the the key strengths of the Technologies other than the environmental gains that we're we're offering um right off the bat our industry as an ESG Champion I think I think we understate that often but we've got scalable repeatable Technologies I think uh we're able to replace um human beings especially in jobs that are dull dirty and dangerous so those are the categories that everything always falls into I think we're as an industry aligned on that I believe the three parts are the technology the Regulatory and certification and the um uh and the industry adoption and public AC acceptance I also agree with Alex I think the technology is either there or almost there but I also believe coming from kind of the piloted uh aircraft commercial aircraft world that our regulatory bodies around the world for that matter particularly in the market markets we're serving are moving quickly and catching up and I think the things that

**[13:03]** we've been waiting for for a number of years are you know we're we're right there we're going to see significant changes in the next uh uh in the immediate future that'll start to enable this technology and I believe by the time we get to 2030 it's not just going to be a sector of the uh Aviation Aerospace industry I think it's going to be starting to disrupt it entirely I think you're going to see middle mile cargo not just critical deliveries but middle mile cargo will be handled with longer larger longer range larger uh drones um and I think a lot of the activities such as the critical infrastructure oil and gas and power utilities same scenario I think we're going to have a a uh an operator monitoring remotely the activities that are happening on a scheduled or unscheduled basis to give people better quality data in real time um and in a way that's more friendly to our environment so I think uh 2030 is tomorrow it's coming fast thank you Glenn so you brought this up obviously so we're here because of

**[14:06]** collaboration you brought up the very quick moving regulatory landscape so I'm going to go right back to you and go back around with this question so with that rapidly evolving regular 3 landscape what collaborative approaches between industry and government are essential to fostering Innovation while ensuring Public Safety and privacy well I think a lot of that's going on right now you know if you think about how the industry started in most of the major markets you know we had drones operating in a largely unregulated environment and they put a cap on it they they contained us so to speak uh while they got control and learned a little bit about it and many of The Regulators I think in in most uh countries The Regulators are Aviation Regulators that are coming out of the you know the certified world and they they treated drones very much like something other than an aircraft which is interesting because by definition they are an aircraft just remotely piloted and most countries so far I haven't found any that define an aircraft U by where the

**[15:08]** pilot sits or by the level of autonomy um so I think I I think um government is actually uh proactively um engaged with the industry to make some progress I think IO is making some real progress with the AR house working groups um and I think the member states are following along pretty well we've got some real industry leaders like nitton putting together uh sessions like this that are helping bring our industry closer together and you know if I was a betting man right now we've got Regulators from various countries around the world that are listening into this because it's it's more than just a job people are engaging if I look in Canada specifically we have uh companies that are are being contracted by the federal government of Canada to actually go through uh operational testing using their platforms to actually help them become as a regulator more familiar with the operation of these remotely techn remote Technologies to be able to help accelerate and improve the regulatory process so I think those Partnerships are happening now I

**[16:12]** think it's far less adversarial I think we're learning more about one another and uh and I believe that um The Regulators in Industry are in lock step in terms of seeing the benefits of our technology not to say that we have the same interest in the process obviously there interest in regulation is protecting Public Safety which I think we're all conscious of just uh as responsible operators but but fundamentally I think that collaboration is happening now thanks Clinton I I agree um Alex to you do I have to say something controversial again no maybe um I mean I I hear people saying how the regulations are moving fast but I don't feel it um so part one was 7 came out in 2016 and part 107 only allows visual line of sight operations so for the last 8 years the FAA has been issuing waivers for everything essentially right so everybody who wants to do any

**[17:12]** operations it's just a waiver after waiver it's stacks of paperwork um I I understand part 108 is coming I've heard that before uh maybe we'll see an nprm this year um that means it'll be another 18 months after that it's actually law so I feel like that's that's way too slow like um there's nothing that's killing this industry more than American European regulations so if it wasn't for that uh companies like well all of us here could be moving 10 times faster doing 10 times cooler things um and if you somebody wants to see sort of what the future of drones looks like take a look at China right that's what the that's what the future looks like they are doing stuff in China that we're all are wishing we could do here including autonomous operations you know much easier scale to Employments um and we're here filling out 250 pages of paperwork for for every site so that's that's how I feel take it or leave it but yeah I honestly feel that that we could be doing much better if we want this industry to to thrive Alex than well at least the FAA is approving them a

**[18:16]** little faster today um paperwork doesn't change uh nitt to you thoughts okay thanks um so we have worked with Regulators in almost I think 15 different countries so far right from Japan Korea in the Middle East and all the way to us and Mexico um what we have kind of uh we have developed some sort of empathy for The Regulators so I I know as innovators we feel kind of uh that know they are not really moving fast enough they should be moving fast enough and all of that but when you look at things from the point of view of regulators right so they are looking at the risk right so while yes everything works maybe 99% of the time but that 1% of the time when something goes wrong then what do you do um and that is their concern right so know we have started kind of know developing that empathy for these regulators and figuring out okay how can we help them get that conviction in the technology or what else can we do to build that safety case and also now working with so many different

**[19:20]** Regulators we have been trying to put together sort of case studies and enough data so that we can use that data from one regulator and use it to convince the other regulator that see this has already been done and it has already been used in this geography can we learn something from here and apply it to another geography so some of these things have helped and uh what we have seen is they are also genuinely interested in moving forward because they're getting a lot of backlash so they also understand that yes we need to move forward but we as an industry have to guide them we as an industry have to go to them with some kind of recommendations data with some sort of know safety cases and all of that uh so that they are convinced that they are taking good decisions in the interest of safety so so I think we we have an important role to play uh to come up with a lot of these things and work closely with them uh to move this industry forward and thank you uh David thoughts yeah I mean there's no question there's pressure on The Regulators globally uh I just like to flip it around and and a lot of the work we're doing with our customers is to say

**[20:24]** uh the regulation will become more simple we don't know exactly what that timeline is going to be we don't know exactly what the requirements are going to be in that scenario but we have customers that are implementing you know technology like like dock drones at construction sites and facing the fact that in the interim they still need a pilot for safety that's not BBL loss when they don't have a a waiver um and what we're getting the feedback is these customers are saying we can never go back to a human piloted scenario where somebody rocks up with a drone puts in the SD card charges it um and we have this hilarious story where where our CEO was on site with a customer you know about to fly and then they forgot the SD card back they go to the office grab the SD card and then they had didn't have the right batteries with them that that all of that messy technology goes away when you have the the doc drone and the autonomy components put in place the other thing is where is the expert so in our in our situation it's not just a part 107 pilot you also need somebody that understands photogrametry what is the site I'm trying to capture what

**[21:25]** are the settings I need in order to capture really high resolution digital footprint uh when you start using technology like this that expert can be remote that expert can actually put those settings into the software and then really the the the pilot is really just the safety pilot at the site so you don't have an expert traveling to the site to set that up that's all managed remotely so we have customers telling us they can never go back they're now absolutely hooked on Doc drone as a technology they absolutely before they BB loss waivers kick in they are going to have safety you know Pilots at at the sites but they're unlocking a huge amount of value but it's not the full value yet but they're already unlocking a huge amount of value with this first wave of technology so we're encouraging customers to do that understand the technology understand the risk understand the protocols uh and then migrating towards that future and yes we don't have full control over uh The Regulators and we'll go on that Journey with The Regulators but then they also get to see the operations very close to what it's going to look like in that future State David thank you you unlocked another question but I'm not going to get to it

**[22:28]** right now I want to hear from from Eric all right great um and I think we've covered this fairly well and I would say I agree with all the panelists uh but I would make the point that uh we are have seen I believe very very significant regulatory progress and uh in the sense that the headwinds are lessening right the the progress we've made uh both on the regulatory side but also as operators the experience and again getting back to the technology Platforms in particular autonomous platforms uh the experience um improving reliability is is beginning to make uh create a situation where uh the headwinds are lessening and the fact is there's been more BB lost waivers approve approvals uh and flights and we've ever seen U uh in say you know years right so it's this we're we're on this pretty steep curve uh here with um in terms of uh operations um so but I I'd also add one thing Jason because you you started the question you were talking more broadly about government and of course regulatory is part of that um what I'd want to highlight for um uh uh for the for

**[23:32]** for the conversation here is that the we're seeing a lot of activity from State local governments in agencies um like Departments of transportations for example but also Federal um uh um government bodies who are being customers right and they're spending a lot of money and that spending growth is is becoming substantial uh and I think that's adding uh a significant Tailwind uh to the sector uh that um you I think we need to start paying attention to and Catering to because there's a tremendous amount of value I getting back to the first question for um for for critical infrastructure operators for example for Public Safety uh and and the more experience we get and the more we're able to demonstrate that value the more the industry is going to grow Eric thank you um so this actually some this word has come up several times right gaps right standards so let's go back around the horn and and and just briefly because we have a lot of questions we actually have some questions coming in which is amazing so can we identify what are those gaps in the global standards for these

**[24:39]** types of operations and how can you as industry leaders unite to establish and harmonize those standards let's let's go back to Eric uh I'm sorry Jason you talking about gaps and standards yes okay I'm GNA defer on that because I'm not going to be the expert in the panel on this okay no problem let's go that do we have a volunteer no volunteers that's no fun all right well I'm gonna I'm gonna move to a question that I actually want to ask then so and I've heard this a couple times I actually jumped into a networking session and talked to two different people just for fun um and this was their common question so I'm gonna ask it and it and it's been on your list so you're G to see it and I think you'll all have a take on it so we'll start again with you Eric so how will the role of a drone operator transform with advancing autonomy and what steps are are are you taking to elevate their

**[25:40]** skills to adapt to this new landscape this great question so I I think the um at its core you're solving this autonomy with technology and it's really the comp complimentary Technologies you put around your autonomous systems uh and I would point to firstly is the detectan void technology so I think as we integrate that uh these capabilities the ability to scale with customers is just grows significantly um and then you know of course as we're as as as we're getting the scale I'm not sure if this is where you expected me to take it uh but but more flights more experience with customers uh we begin to get into more um Advanced Data Solutions right so that's the data analytic side of it and that's and that's where we see a tremendous amount of opportunity uh to add value but also uh upskilling in terms of of building the talent internally that's exactly where I wanted you to take it so thank you um David your

**[26:43]** thoughts okay yeah I guess the question with each leap of technology is are we simplifying the technology or are we making life you know harder at the end of the day and and if you take the the previous generation of Technology with our customers again and oil and gas and and construction they had a big choice to make around obviously software and then independently what Hardware they're going to CH so we choose these drones we choose the software package that can coordinate these drones uh and then their third choice was really do they train a you know Fleet of Pilots or do they Outsource that to the service provider and I'm particularly interested to see what happens to that service provider ecosystem so firstly the question is you know is it going to be simplified and I think once things like the doc drones are set up it is simplified there's less things to do there's less things to think about there's less things to worry about obviously during the flight there are some you know further concerns you know really around how you manage BV loss but the question for me is what does the ecosystem evolve in terms of service providers so let's

**[27:43]** assume there's going to be a significant reduction in people jumping in vehicles and traveling to locations with drones and flying I think we're all agreeing that that's you know going to not be eliminated but it's going to drop off very significantly uh so the question is then what happens to those service providers will they then set up those operation centers where they're actually saying to the customer we can have redundant network connectivity we can have a suite of um air safety technologies that we implement we have protocols and processes so so is there going to be a trend to go back to more service providers and not trying to train your Fleet or are you going to have your own Operation Center uh actually manage these types of program so I think that ecosystem we're not only just evolving as a software Hardware ecosystem but I think the service provider industry is going to have a significant change over the next few years and that's going to be interesting and how that changes I agree David that will be very interesting um nittan what are your thoughts right so uh as Glenn mentioned earlier right so we are going from human in the loop to towards

**[28:46]** human on the loop uh so what basically that means is that with every automation technology we are always removing people from the loop that they were earlier in and moving them to a loop above it so they come outside of that initial Loop but then of course there are opportunities to again remove from them from that Loop and bring them one step uh no one one step above that loop again so there are always like no kind of lot of nested loops and we are continuously trying to remove ourselves from lower loops and moving towards higher Loops right so for example know we used to have horse cars and then we got to cars and now we are getting to autonomous cars and then maybe something else uh so with each step we are reducing human effort and human effort is now being utilized for a larger purpose for something bigger so today operators are maybe operating a single drone but with autonomous systems maybe you need only one operator few tech for a few tens of drones just to supervise that or to set some high level goals and to look at the data make sure everything is getting done so of course uh know with every Auto automation technology we need to

**[29:47]** upskill ourselves we need to uh know kind of rewire ourselves so that we are not stuck in that inner loop we are moving towards that Outer Loop and for that uh upskilling training all the these things will become very important and today we announced the launch of FlytBase Academy which is a step in that direction where we are kind of changing the conversation from how to fly a drone uh towards like how to set up command centers or how to build like fully automated work flows and so on and thank you Alex do you have thoughts on this one um I well so I'll I agree with everyone here I'll go a step further as usual um there shouldn't be drone Pilots there shouldn't be operators of drones there really should just be consumers of the data that the Drone provides uh and then there's probably some support which is necessary but I think that today's situation where if you wanted to fly a drone so if I came if I came to your party and I flew a drone and took some pictures I can do

**[30:48]** that basically without any regulations um and then if I charge you $1 for those pictures I needed to be a part 107 certified pilot um I find that that distinction uh to be quite interesting but I also think that like almost nothing that you would learn as a part 107 pilot or almost nothing that just sort of that is being tested there should be relevant to operating a drone right drone should not be flying if it's not allowed to so you should need to read sectional charts the Drone knows where it is it knows it can't fly here you know end of story uh the Drone should know the weather and you should not fly if the weather is bad right you don't need to know what the cold front will do you don't need to know what you know convective fog means or anything like that like it should just be taken care of all you really are doing as an as an operator today right is that you're directing the Drone to go somewhere take pictures a video collect whatever sensor data that you need that's the data that you need for construction purposes for security for anything else that's what you want the Drone should ensure safety for all of that operations

**[31:49]** without you having really any choice in that matter unless of course there are some special circumstances where you're flying you know drones uh in but for the most part for 99% of the people I feel that they're consumers of what the Drone produces they're not actually operators it's like a driverless car right a driverless car should not have a driver should not have a remote driver it should not have a driver like a driverless car is a box that takes you to a place right the end of story so a drone really is a is a flying thing that does something for you so I would say that would be my my point of view this Alex thanks for taking me a step further and uh introducing a new level of drone management um Glenn thoughts oh m one more time one more time last time it's got to be a Saturday I'm following uh a lot of the comments that are coming in while my colleagues are are uh are speaking and it's quite interesting to see them I I see everybody's point of

**[32:50]** view here as being valid but from a different perspective when we're looking at I think we're I think we're long long time before the humans are completely off of the loop I do think we'll get there I truly do but at this moment in time the lines of code are written by human human beings and ultimately you know um computers have glitches and that's part of the reason the people are in the in the loop and to some respect when we start talking large scale versus very localized in our case for example the concept of the remote Operation Center it's it's really uh you know that's part of the velatus Aerospace script and I don't like talking very much about our company but that's where we are right now trying to centralize the operation of our remotely operated drones uh along with the oversight of our piloted helicopters and aircraft into one Center and then Bridging the Gap between them and then slowly replacing you know a 2,000 pound uh piloted platform with a you know 100 kilogram uh

**[33:52]** drone capable of doing the same thing the areas that we can deal with this stuff today are places like offshore you know North Sea operations we've got drones operating in the North Sea and and offshore we've got uh Arctic regions we've got you know restricted airspace around uh Wildfire so the remote operation it's a it's a time that we're we're doing more than dipping our toe into the water I think as an industry I think drones are actually finding their way there now people are discovering that you know when a helicopter goes down that's a really bad thing there's human beings that are at risk in the air and on the ground but when we lose an air vehicle um with nobody on board and a very small footprint overall there's major uh major advantages to that um I think that training infrastructure uh training is absolutely key this is a new industry it's not like buying a business Jet and looking at the you know uh tens of thousands of business jets that are out there a lot of this technology is new and we're learning what being an operator

**[34:54]** means today that's a a truck a drone and an operator with a ground control station um with the exception of Technologies like Alex and and Eric's for certain um but but fundamentally um we're still talking about large-scale operations where we're looking at Large Scale power lines you know where we're dealing with a th000 kilometers instead of four kilometers or or or you know five or six miles type of thing um I believe we're we're now going from an environment where it takes us years to train a pilot to weeks to months to train an operator because really uh as Alex pointed out earlier the aircraft itself is taking care of itself and understands the airspace some of the technologies that are out there and available today actually analyze the changing conditions in that airspace um so I think it's a I think it's um uh it's it's realistic that Pilots will eventually disappear as we know them today I suspect they won't disappear in my lifetime uh they won't be off

**[36:00]** the loop entirely but I do think that's where we're headed and I do think there's also Technologies where that is the case if we look at the deployment of of Alex's Technologies and and Eric's Technologies you know some of those things are can be autonomously triggered autonomously operated the data sorts itself out autonomously the main reason that we have a human in the loop is from a from a you know regulatory confidence uh monitoring standpoint back on the loop but I do think I do think we're going to change completely what we view as being a pilot and they're going to become more an operator and their job is more how do we interface and deliver instructions and missions to the Drone as opposed to actually manipulating the Drone um so we're we're you know we're getting there but we've got we've got a ways to go yet but again you know you look at the differ opinions here some of those different opinions have to do with the level of Technologies that are are actually being provided by those companies today in the markets they're

**[37:02]** serving you know when I look at Large Scale oil sorry go ahead no no Glenn I was I thought you were you wrapping up I just wanted to um maybe you know further support what you're saying I think it's very insightful and um you know we are providing fully autonomous platforms and and our strategy is to deploy these as fleets uh to um for security and inspection at critical infrastructure field area operations for utilities oil and gas operators uh but I I I want to make a plug similar to what you're saying Glenn for the Drone Service uh operator and I think this the roles really evolve when you're deploying this this autonomous technology uh you're going to customers typically who are spending a lot of money and have many different use cases for drones and having that expertise in the field to be able to do uh in architect um you know multiple Solutions is really invaluable and I think that's a really important part of the customer relationship and really taking uh the solutions and your product road map uh to be as valuable as as it can be for the

**[38:05]** customers so I think for um as as you're saying the the the it's going to evolve right the the the the value and and the day-to-day operations of the people in the field uh but I think you're going to still need a lot of people I guess just to clarify my angle here I don't want to say that an autonomous drone doesn't mean no human can interact with it I'm just saying no human has to be interacting with it in a panel earlier today they talked about European regulations they talk that essentially European regulations there is a provision for what to do in a situation of a Comm link Comm link loss right so if you're losing communication with your drone your remote Operator by definition can't do anything right so you need to provision a system to be able to operate safely in those conditions already and so happens that I forgot the exact percentage but it's high double digit percentages of any sort of drone incidents that happened is a Comm link loss right so by sort of insisting that there is a remote operator in charge and then saying

**[39:06]** that half of the times that the operator can't do anything right we're sort of Define that point um here as well and then just the last start I'll add is um like in terms of technology and code and not being trusted like we used to have elevator operators too right and some time went by and people said you know what I can push this button myself and will do the same thing now doesn't mean there's no problems in elevators elevators get stuck there's all sorts of problems but then you push another button and you talk to another person you know in that situation and they come and they get uh and they help you out so I think the drones are much more on that track right we're still in a there is an elevator operator sort of mode but the reality is that operator really is a support person that's needed 1% or fractional percent of the time sometime in the future if I can add something uh Jason you asked a question earlier about gaps in in uh standardization and procedures and so on I think one of the reasons that we're having challenges even responding to that why nobody kind of popped out of their

**[40:10]** seat to to answer it is because it really depends on what we're talking about right the standards of operation of of autonomous drone in the Box Solutions is very different from the operation of uh of an operator running a drone down a power line let's say um but I do think those gaps are there and there and there're a combination of Technology gaps and um uh standard operating procedures that align with both you know Aviation safety or flight safety in general data integrity and uh and ultimately the regulatory uh compliance requirements and you know I watched somebody made a comment in the chat there a minute ago about kind of the legal viability of of certain elements you know when we take the human completely out of the RO out of the loop one of the challenges es we have is the lawyers have nobody to yell at right um and and that's that is actually an issue it's one of the biggest challenges right now with crossborder operations we can overcome certain things but other things become very difficult because if you drive your car across the border

**[41:12]** and you do something wrong there's somebody that the the border patrol can can grab a hold of and and hold accountable but autonomous vessels going back and forth it gets complicated now it gets complicated to understand who's responsible and where that person is and how do we enforce that if they're not on Sovereign land so um I think there's I think that subject deserved a comment I just needed to think a little bit about it before we did it because it's a big subject and I think that's why you didn't get the answers there I I appreciate that yeah I reading the question I was like wow yeah that was very non-specific a little too General so that was my bad um so we're actually getting down to sort of the end here I was looking to see if there were any questions um that popped into our Q&A section um seeing none I did see that was a great great conversation thank you keep that conversation going we we we have panelists talking to you we have other people all over the globe talking this is amazing um I want to maybe take the last question and if we could do

**[42:14]** it sort of a lightning rounds uh way like I want to talk about money everyone let talk about money so can we just sort of like very quickly like just like what are the econom Ripple effects of autonomous drones so we're just going to do we're just going to answer that in whatever way you style you would like to we do it fairly quickly since you have few minutes left so everyone gets 30 seconds um let's start with Eric you're on the clock you know Jason my it's a simple um I think it's a simple analysis from an economic standpoint is you're taking the labor out uh and when you're introducing technology that is very very valuable and the customer has high Ro why uh and it's a technology driven platform and service it should have very high margins so I think if you look at um the return on investment return on product development uh Visa V uh other um Service delivery models uh it's there's no comparison it's it's it's

**[43:16]** it's a much higher return awesome Eric thank you David yeah I think the interesting thing at the moment because of the human cost factor is there's a limit in terms of what current you can get Roi on using these types of aerial Vehicles so at the moment you're saying hey only if this thing is worth more than this value will we do it and so when that cost comes down and that human factor comes down there will be more things that we can do that now become viable so it's not just a question of we going to be doing the same things on the same frequency but it's going to cost us less money there's actually new use cases and much higher frequency that can actually start kicking in so I think that's the big shift that we're starting to see uh is those new use cases that now become viable and similar happened when the price of these units came down so we're going to see that next wave of productivity kick in for new applications David thank you I'm gonna jump to Glenn so I think unit economics are a big subject and I think there's direct and indirect you know when we look at drone cargo delivery today or drone delivery the unit economics are

**[44:18]** difficult because we're carrying a uh small amount of of uh payload um uh relative to the operating cost as we as as those unit economics change with larger drones carrying more uh you know more product at lower cost that's a very different uh model on the um I think where the uh uh direct has more to do with you know pulling the human labor out moving to a many one many to one or many to many scenario that's where the unit economics will really gain but more importantly is the indirect impact right every year as we're I'm sure I hope not but I'm expecting we're going to see this year like last year the consequences of the environmental change and and basically these drones and the operation of these drones do tremendous things to improve our planet and the payback on that could be could be spelled out in trillions of dollars of potential property or potential profit as we continue to move forward so I really think it's a big subject that Jason one probably worthy of

**[45:21]** an entire conversation completely agree and I put it as a light round so Alex I mean uh what what's going to happen to the economy is going to be less determined by what drones do but maybe more determined by what driverless vehicles and Ai and other things will do to a large effect so the drones will be a fraction of of that but I think just generally the what what humans should be doing is going to change right so if humans are doing menial tasks which can be easily replaced by by some kind of a autonomy or by some kind of an AI those jobs are going to shift uh and those humans will find better higher level things to do right so I think we should always we should always strive to keep ahead uh of whatever technology is doing for us right so it's um you know repeat of the Industrial Revolution uh but at a new level and I think it's ultimately good for Humanity it's ultimately good for all of the economies that people are put to better use than what you know three

**[46:23]** lines of code and the Drone is going to do for you amen thank you um let's end with our host nitton your thoughts on this and then we'll close sure so we like to think of it in two parts I think some of the other panelists already touched upon those so one is a set of applications that are kind of already being done but they are not being done in a very efficient manner so with autonomous drones we will be able to make them much more efficient and we are already now beginning to get some sort of Roi calculations know working with our customer so this has happened only recently that now some solid numbers have started to come in where we can clearly see that earlier this kind of work used to take know so much cost and now we are able to see significant reduction in that uh cost due to use of autonomous technology and this year I'm sure we'll have many more case studies with those numbers published uh so that is one set of application the second set of applications is where uh those were just not possible uh know for example think of emergency response or servicing alarms so those are kind of things that were very expensive and so no body was even

**[47:26]** kind of doing it or uh so these are applications that will get unlocked because of this technology and new value will be generated which was earlier just not there so so that will be really fascinating really interesting I think know David also mentioned about that so those are the two kind of categories one is efficiency and one is kind of unlocking new value which did not just exist so you've heard it here folks these are the industry leaders that are going to be shaping our vision for in of 23 they're gonna be shaping this through and and there are many of us so thank you so much for spending time for us with us today thank you to our sponsors thank you to each one of the panelists highly I am humbled just being here being able to host this session so thank you so much um we will take it back to the we'll take it off the stage we'll take it back to the host thank you so much and we will see you next time so thank you everyone bye now thanks everyone thanks thanks everyone